Quote from zxd:
While I'm not sure what will happen Monday, I personally believe the markets would be somewhat irrational to continue strong declines next week.
"Irrational" is Mr/s. Market's first name.
Looking at the bigger picture: the rally from March 2009 lows. Buying volume was huge from March lows through early May, and buying volume outpaced selling volume all the way. This was the easy money off a massively oversold market.
Overall volume declined after that and by the fall, selling volume on down days was outpacing buying volume on up days.
Between December and January the market continued to make new highs on very light volume.
There was a near-correction from late January through early February and selling volume on the down days seriously outpaced the volume of the up days. But by then market participants were well-conditioned to buy every dip, and when price touched the 200-day EMA on Feb 5th, there was bull feeding frenzy in terms of buying volume.
The market then further conditioned participants to buy no matter what. Just buy, buy, buy. By mid-April even the most stubborn bears were looking to buy dips.
Last week everyone who averaged up into long positions following the 2/5 pivot low experienced a major wipeout of their profits.
Everyone who averaged up into long positions from either the July pivot low area, or the July breakout through previous highs, held part or all of their positions through the Jan/Feb minor trend breakdown, then started adding again on the break through highs, saw their profits nearly erased.
Months of steady gains erased in a week.
With stocks fairly valued based on earnings and potential economic growth, and Europe in a shambles, there doesn't seem to be a rational reason for the market to rise much beyond this level. Other than participants playing the oversold levels in case by some irrational chance Europe makes an announcement: "I'm not dead. I'm getting better. I feel happy! I feel happy!" and then of course we retest highs.
The wisest traders tell you not to fight the trend and that trying to predict tops and bottoms is a fruitless and expensive exercise and it's true. We all felt a pullback was coming and you had the choice of shorting the market hit or miss in and out until you finally catch the pullback, averaging down in the hopes of retracement, or waiting for some early confirmation, such as the lower high off the top between 4/30 and 5/3. But you're still at risk fighting the trend without a strong short signal.
Then today, I seemed to remember something, in the back of my mind, a comment Shortie made. I scanned his April posts around the time of new highs and I found it. Shortie provided one of the earliest possible short signals, placing you in a short position just a few hairs from the top. The comment was amusing at the time, but now, set in the framework of the past week, it was frighteningly foreboding:
04-20-10 01:21 PM
"i should add that this is my optimistic projection. i don't believe this market will ever go down. maybe in 2011."